Europa League

As Everton push for a sixth or fifth place finish and qualification for Europe next season, I came across this article by Paul Wilson in the Observer today - his view on the UEFA Cup.

I like what Paul Wilson writes about, primarily because he's a very good writer, but he always gives a decent level of coverage to Everton and is always fair. With his piece about the UEFA Cup, he talks about the attitude taken by Spurs and Villa last week in their approach to their cup ties and highlights the problems facing the UEFA Cup as once again it is to be revamped for the 09/10 season as the Europa League. Again the competition will be based initially on mini-leagues, before moving to a 32-team knock-out including (still) the fall out boys of the Champions' League, which, as usual, will be full of lots of non-Champions. Paul Wilson basically thinks it is a failing competition and this will not improve things. He also suggests it be turned into a straightforward knock-out cup with possibly some seeding making it a completely different competition to the CL.

For me, he's spot on in highlighting the weakness of the UEFA Cup. As Europe is so utterly dominated by the Champions League, anything else is always going to play second fiddle. In that respect, why compete? Why not try something radical and reintroduce a 64 or more team knock-out to rev it up? One of the best supported and most avidly followed competitions in the USA is something called March Madness, an annual basketball tournament for college teams where 64 teams play winner takes all over a period of weeks in, well, March. Its popularity is partly based on the uniqueness of the knock-out system from the first day of the competition; this is not the case in any other sport in the US.

Ultimately for me, Everton qualifying for Europe remains a big deal. I'm completely bored of the Premiership. I'm bored with the predictability of it, with the constant weekly droning noise of the same sides and players. Today, some poor sap is going to sit down and watch Bolton vs Newcastle on TV (nil nil at half time by the way) but outside from fans of those respective teams, who else is really interested? Same with Everton vs West Brom yesterday. The novelty of witnessing sides from across Europe playing at Goodison in the winter is great. Playing Zenit, we got to see Arshavin months before everyone jumped on the bandwagon in December 2007. I thought that night Pogrebniak and Tymoschuk even better. Everton's trip to Nurnberg is now part of club folklore and I got to sit in front of Berti Vogts. Is that happening for me at Fratton Park in a few weeks? From a practical perspective, only by entertaining these European teams on a regular basis do our players become better at performing in Europe in future. I'd hope that regular exposure to European players for Everton's squad would mean that at some point a return to the Champions League - pipe dream though it is - will mean we're better equipped to compete, and it has to help David Moyes become a better manager.

I completely understand Redknapp's decision on Thursday. Spurs have the Carling Cup Final today and are in the soap down the bottom of the Premiership. O'Neill's decision is harder to square. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if I bump into my Spurs supporting work colleagues tomorrow morning and they are no longer holders of the Carling Cup, still 3 points above the drop in the Premier League and not in Europe since Thursday, I can't imagine many rushing to buy match tickets between now and May.